Now Scientists Can ‘See’ Through Walls
Boffins at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have announced a remarkable new system that can “see” people moving the other side of solid brick walls.
Called RF-Pose, it uses Artificial Intelligence to monitor wifi signals, which can penetrate walls but are disrupted by movement.
By using CCTV cameras in sync with wifi to “learn” the effect of people on the radio signals in a space, further movements can be tracked after the cameras are removed, just by detecting the wifi.
This development offers the prospect of much improved and lower cost security solutions for the home.
Detection and alert to suspicious persons in a garden, for instance, would be made easy by the typical reach of wifi signals around a house and the ability of the underlying AI to distinguish people from foxes and the like.
The MIT eggheads have also projected uses within the home, particularly in monitoring the elderly and in helping those with frailty and long-term conditions to remain in their own homes more safely.
They suggest, for instance, that RF-Pose would readily detect that someone has had a fall and failed to get back up again.
Presumably there would be similar uses in monitoring babies and children and even pets in the same way.
The challenge is, of course, that most technology can be abused and there has to be concern that it might be possible for a burglar to deploy it to check if anyone is in.
Nevertheless, there is a great video that shows RF-Pose in action. To watch it, key “MIT RF Pose” into your favourite search engine and follow the link to the www.mit.edusite.
